Joey Payeur
It can only get better from here.
The Muskies were blanked 30-0 by the Neelin Spartans in their WHSFL regular-season opener yesterday in Brandon.
“Our inexperience shone through. We’re really raw,” Mike Cuzzolino admitted after his head coaching debut with the black-and-gold.
“Lots of guys got their eyes opened a bit.”
Fort High trailed 18-0 at halftime and couldn’t generate much on offence, especially on the ground.
The Spartans’ defence dominated play in the trenches and bottled up Muskie running back Dougie deBernardeaux.
“We have a ton of work to do on offence, especially on the offensive line,” Cuzzolino noted.
“We had a really hard time running the football.
“We had probably negative rushing yards total, so we were forced to air it out more than I would’ve liked,” he added.
That put extra pressure on new starting quarterback Brandon Whitecrow, who found himself starting several drives deep in his own territory.
That led to a pair of second-half fumbles that were recovered for touchdowns by Neelin.
Cuzzolino reserved most of his praise for his defence.
“They were outstanding,” he lauded.
“Out of the 30 points we surrendered, only 18 were when the defence was on the field.”
The Muskies travel to Dryden to take on the Eagles next Friday (Sept. 12).
Their first home game will be Sept. 19 against the Maples Marauders.
